This study, sponsored by Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, will explore options for restoring passenger service that responds to the needs of adjacent neighborhoods, explore development potential to support passenger service, and balance the demands of current and future freight rail activity.

Just another example of a politician looking to play "Railroad Tycoon" with the public's money.

hrfcarl wrote:Both of these statements are true: Unless the Lower Montauk and/or Atlantic Branch can be brought into Manhattan, then there won't be much benefit.

Unless Manhattan moves into LIC and downtown brooklyn... which in the case of LIC is kinda happening. In the next 10 years it will all be high rises. Currently the majority are residential but that could change. The old paragon oil offices & blanchard building are undergoing office conversions, and at least one of the new towers at queens plaza will be commercial real estate.

Anyway - I'm curious what the next versions of her plan will be - hopefully it will have evolved significantly and not be froth with unforced errors like placing a station behind fresh direct (where there is no street access). There was no new info at a meeting she held a month ago on this proposal so I'm not holding my breath.

Unfortunately, Crowley is drinking the CURES kool-aid and has publicly stated that freight trains are a 'threat' to the community.

Yeah. I went to a meeting back in May and it was a bit strange. She seemed to have one conception of the study, and the planners another. She was definitely looking or a certain outcome for it. There was a good amount of community resistance at the one I attended though -- people complaining about noise, the lack of manhattan access, and (sadly) that the construction of the line would make their neighborhood less exclusive (read: bring people of color from Richmond Hill/Jamaica).

As for freight she seemed to think that building the line could somehow prevent the PA from adding freights on it LOL

DogBert wrote: Currently the majority are residential but that could change. The old paragon oil offices & blanchard building are undergoing office conversions, and at least one of the new towers at queens plaza will be commercial real estate.

Paragon Oil Building was built 1915 along with the Hunters Point IRT station, it was designed from the beginning to have a subway in the basement with direct building access and the location was its selling point.

Since my friend continues to chain smoke nonstop, she is probably an Alco.

Yup - the old staircase is still in the facade of the building connecting to the station below - I'm not quite sure if/how it'll reopen once the building renovation is done, though I can't imagine the owners not leveraging that connection as a selling point. They closed those stairs sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. The history of that building is covered in this book: http://ltvsquad.com/product/7-line-l-i-c/

I don't think it's a matter of 'if' passenger trains will run on the lower montauk again - i think it's a question of when, and in what form. Same goes for an LIRR stop at sunnyside, or perhaps enhanced service to/from HPA.

LI City Westbound to LI City Passenger Yard view NE 1970 or later, as the car behind the locomotive is one of the two former Erie-Lackawanna Phoebe Snow tavern lounge observation cars. Info: Jack Deasy